The Broke and the Beautiful: Joe Francis Redux Edition

This week on The Broke and the Beautiful, Joe Francis speaks to Bankruptcy Beat. Also, an appellate court tosses a legal judgment against the Girls Gone Wild founder.

Arnold Turner/Associated Press

Joe Francis in September 2012

Joe Francis has been inourthoughts a lot lately, and this week, Bankruptcy Beat got up close and personal with the Girls Gone Wild founder. In an interview with Bankruptcy Beat, Francis said the bankruptcy trustee for the company is out to destroy the company as part of a “moral crusade.” He accused R. Todd Neilson and his lawyers of “raping the company of every dollar they can get” in fees, noting that Neilson “is a devout Mormon who is hard pressed to destroy me and destroy Girls Gone Wild just because of personal animosity.” In a statement, Neilson said he and his lawyers were “fulfilling our well-established duties with respect to the bankruptcy estates—nothing more and nothing less.”

Our interview wasn’t the only Joe Francis news this week. A federal appeals court voided a $3 million judgment against Francis and related entities. The Legal Intelligencer (sub. req.) reported that plaintiff Amber Arpaio had alleged that Ashley Dupre, who was at the center of the Eliot Spitzer scandal, pretended to be Arpaio in a YouTube video that Francis released that Arpaio said used her name and likeness without permission. Judge Marjorie O. Rendell of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shot down the suit, saying Arpaio “has not presented evidence sufficient to demonstrate facts that establish specific personal jurisdiction over him.”

John Shearer/Associated Press

Alec Baldwin

Earlier in the year, Broke mentioned a documentary that looked at the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme from a different perspective. Now, it seems as if a fictionalized version Madoff’s life is getting some play on the big screen, according to Speakeasy. Woody Allen is taking on Madoff’s life in the upcoming movie “Blue Jasmine,” which tells the story of a rich New York housewife (played by Cate Blanchett) and her husband (played by Alec Baldwin), who goes to jail for some white-collar crime. The movie focuses on Blanchett’s character, Jasmine, trying to keep her life together without her husband’s money. The situation was similar for Ruth Madoff, Bernard Madoff’s wife, who broke her silence in 2009.

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Matthew Bellamy of Muse performs on stage during the Brit Awards 2013 at the 02 Arena in February in London.

Muse singer Matt Bellamy isn’t in bankruptcy, but his dad has been, and that experience has is what made him want to be successful. This week, he told the Sun (h/t Belfast Telegraph) that during the 1990s recession, “my dad went bankrupt and it played a huge part in it all at home.”

“So I experienced the sharp end of a tough time, living with a single parent, my mum, and she was really struggling to get a job,” he said. “These are the things that form your views in life.”

Associated Press

John L. Smith on the sidelines of an NCAA college football game against LSU in Fayetteville, Ark., Friday, Nov. 23, 2012.

Former Arkansas Razorbacks coach John L. Smith was accused of fraud earlier this year, but now he’s settled the score. According to Arkansas Business, Smith reached a deal with a trustee this week to give back some money he received or gave away before he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2012. He, his wife and his kids will give back $165,000 in cash and $600,000 in property (44 acres of undeveloped land) to settle the claims.

Here at Broke, we keep finding out that it’s not over till it’s over. Earlier this month, there was talk of the Phoenix Coyotes getting bought by a group led by Canadian investor George Gosbee and executives from ex-bidder Ice Edge Holdings. Could there be an end in sight? Maybe so, according to the Phoenix Business Journal. The National Hockey League, which purchased the team out of bankruptcy years ago, tentatively approved the deal, which would keep the team in Arizona. Forbes noted that the sale is contingent on a new lease that would force the city of Glendale to pay the investor group big money to run the arena where the Coyotes play.

About Bankruptcy Beat

From Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review, exclusive coverage of corporate bankruptcies, companies headed for trouble and the latest trends in bankruptcy law, distressed investing and corporate restructuring. Lead writer Pat Fitzgerald and Daily Bankruptcy Review reporters in Washington, New York and Wilmington, Del., provide insight into the big cases, who’s next to fall and what’s making news across the bankruptcy market.